Black Friday Rant

I know I had more glasses of wine last night than I’ve had in over a month.  So maybe that was the instigator of my emotional reaction to the news.  Or maybe I’m just… well, odd.

I was watching the stories of people camping out in front of Best Buy and other retail establishments throughout the state.  A good puff piece to make us feel good about the economy, right?  Um… like I said, it made me cry.  There was a woman who was staking out her claim ALL day yesterday.  On Thanksgiving. 

All right.  I get it.  Not everyone likes Thanksgiving.  Not everyone thinks it’s a fantastic day.  And, honestly, I’ve had my ho hum fourth Thursdays in November.  Until I spent one across the pond away from my family.  And I realized… that’s what makes it matter to me.

At our family Thanksgiving, there was a lot of discussion of forgoing gifts at Christmas this year.  Frankly, I’m relieved the consensus was to nix the pile of paper covered randomness under the tree and piano (even though it is an impressive sculpture and choreography each year).  But seriously, we aren’t children any longer… and the best part is sitting with my cousins and grandmother and aunts, uncles, etc. whom I don’t see all that often.  Oh… and there is that food thing.  But the presents… don’t really matter.

Maybe if I had kids of my own I would feel differently.  In fact, I’m pretty certain if I had a child in my life with whom I spent Christmas Day, I would enjoy the gift part a lot more.  But… I don’t want stuff.  The only thing I asked for this year was contributions to my puppy acquisition.  That’s all.  Because a dog is a manifestation of love… and not something else for which I need to find a place when I have no real use for it.

With the lessening of this gift pressure… man… I really, really like the prospect of the next four weeks so much more.  I’m listening to Bing right now and getting excited for the fact it starts a chain of social events when I can see people and get more of that love thing.  Not stuff.

Because… this year… the brevity of life thing really resonated.  For a lot of reasons.  It made the fact that people are in my life – the fact I have the opportunity to spend time with people in my life – so much more meaningful.   In the end it’s all shadows and dust anyway.  But the memories… the love… the intangible… they keep going.  They linger in the air like the molecules in the rooms at Beauport.  Or the smiles in photographs of people long gone by.  That is the stuff that makes Christmas special.  Not the fact I lost time with my family and sleep and sanity by getting more stuff at Best Buy cheap.

Hm.  Guess that discussion of Socialism over the dessert table had more effect than laughter.